– Reuters – U.S. officials are now concerned that Iran has passed its naval combat expertise on to proxy forces in the region, whom Washington blames for attacks against four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates on Sunday.

– BBC – US investigators believe Iran or groups it supports used explosives to damage four ships off the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday.

– National Interest – Would Iran close the Strait of Hormuz, could it, and would the United States reply by force of arms if Tehran made the attempt?

– USNI News – The Navy isn’t anticipating changes in how it deals with the naval branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as it operates in the Persian Gulf. The rules of engagement haven’t changed following the White House’s designation this week of the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

– War Zone – Combined with larger, domestically-produced subs, the weapons could present new challenges for the country’s opponents.

– Fars News – Iran on Sunday launched its latest state-of-the-art submarine named Fateh in the Southern waters of the country.

– Navy Times – Iran’s navy has acquired two new mini submarines designed for operations in shallow waters such as the Persian Gulf.

– USNI News – U.S. warships operating in the Persian Gulf are now regularly overflown by Iranian unmanned aerial vehicles, adding a new wrinkle to operations in the region.

– War Zone – Any serious Iranian attempt to shut down both passages simultaneously could be a nightmare scenario for international commerce, or worse.

– USNI Proceedings – Iran has mastered the art of “short-of-war,” with important implications for the U.S. Navy.

– USNI News – Iranian drones have become increasingly active in the Persian Gulf and other critical waterways around the Middle East, regularly conducting surveillance flights close to U.S. warships crossing the Strait of Hormuz and operating around the region.

– USNI News – Navy officials are pushing back against claims that a U.S. destroyer was chased away from an Iranian military combined exercise in the Gulf of Oman by naval forces.

– CIMSEC – This article will focus on Iran’s actual maritime capabilities and discusses whether their threats to close down oil shipment in the Strait of Hormuz are credible or not.

– USNI News – Three U.S. Navy ships and a Marine helicopter were harassed during a night transit of the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, including the shining of a laser at a CH-53 helicopter.

– The Drive – The potential threat to international commerce posed by naval mines remains palpable. This is especially true when it comes to their deployment around known geographical bottlenecks. When those bottlenecks convey a large portion of the world’s daily oil supply, destabilizing any one of them could have massive economic and even life-safety repercussions around the globe. This is why the growing threat of naval mines in the Strait of Mandeb, the narrow body of water that ties the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, is so concerning.

– CIMSEC – This article deals with the strategic importance of the Strait of Hormuz for global energy markets and political stability in the Arab Gulf region, as well as understanding Iran’s maritime strategy of using asymmetrical warfare to disrupt vital energy shipping transiting the Strait.

– CIMSEC – International attention has focused on the possibilities of an Iranian closure of the Straits of Hormuz, and the catastrophic effect a blockade would likely have on global energy supplies. Even a temporary closure or military disruption in the waterway would cause energy prices to soar and could politically destabilize the Persian Gulf region. Far less attention has been paid to Iranian activity in the Red Sea, however, despite the crucial importance of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait to world oil shipments.

– BBC – A US Navy ship was forced to change course when fast-moving Iranian vessels approached it in the Strait of Hormuz.

– US Navy Office of Naval Intelligence – The 2017 Office of Naval Intelligence report, Iranian Naval Forces: A Tale of Two Navies.